Yorkshire

A lyrical history of England's greatest county

By: Richard Morris

Narrated by: Sean Baker

Yorkshire is 'a continent unto itself', a region where mountain, plain, coast, downs, fen and heath lie close. By weaving history, family stories, travelogue and ecology, Richard Morris reveals how Yorkshire took shape as a landscape and in literature, legend and popular regard. The result is a fascinating and wide-ranging meditation on Yorkshire and Yorkshireness, told through the prism of the region's most extraordinary people and places.©2017 Richard Morris

Critic reviews

[A] restless, poetic, strange book, and the territory it describes deserves nothing less (Andrew Martin)

[A] quirky, personal history of the Ridings ... Making an idiosyncratic selection of events from prehistory to the present day, and using some charming passages of personal memoir, Morris subtly draws out patterns and recurring themes that may explain the county's distinctive history ... Morris writes insightfully not just about one county, but about how places become what they are (Richard Benson)

Reading the book is like watching the author sift through layers of time: whatever will he turn up next? ... There is a wealth of fascinating information - I'd not known, for example, that the fashion for naming houses 'Windyridge' (as both my father and grandfather called theirs) derived from the popularity of a 1912 novel of that title by Willie Riley (Blake Morrison)

In this meticulously researched book, Richard Morris reveals Yorkshire and Yorkshireness through a series of extraordinary journeys and stories ... Particularly interesting is the juxtaposition of nature, culture, religion and politics and the way in which places are defined and shaped by geography and terrain ... Morris's description of the River Swale as glittering and energetic could be a metaphor for his own writing, which is itself relentlessly energetic ... Fascinating (Adrian Dangar)

Although it is one of the most diverse counties geographically, Yorkshire has always inspired a fierce loyalty among those born there, and it is this sense of place that is the subject of the fascinating Yorkshire

Engrossing ... Aims to look beyond the Eee By Gum stereotypes to explore the intersections between Yorkshire's landscape, language and identity, and reflect too on how outsiders perceive the county

County histories have been around considerably longer than many of our present counties, but in that heavily populated landscape this is no ordinary book, and its author no ordinary writer ... With footnotes to do an academic paper proud, Morris constantly comes across stories that he can't leave alone, that he burrows into, finding new connections and insights and behind which, you imagine, often lie sufficient materials for books of their own (Mike Pitts)

One of the most unusual and thought-provoking guides to the county's distant and recent past

[L]earned and gripping (Alan Crosby)

Rich Beyond Measure

This book is crammed with fascinating stories describing the geography of Yorkshire. Topics include: Geology, Stone-age Briton, Roman, Viking, and Industrial ages .Mining and Whaling. The narrator's accent might be a challenge for those not used to Northern British accents. It is recommended to revue a map before listening